I
Presentation by
The Rt. Hon. P. J. Patterson
Prime Minister of Jamaica
at
World Food Summit, Rome
on
Friday November 15th 1996
UWI LIBRARIES
Presentation by
!
!,
The Rt. Hon. P. J. Patterson
Prime Minister of Jamaica
at
World Food Summit, Rome
on
Friday November 15th 1996
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"The Human Race
is Fighting for Survival"
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Mr. President
Heads of State and Government
Leaders of Delegations
Director General
Distinguished Ladies & Gentlemen
This first Summit of World Leaders on Food
Security comes at a time of considerable challenge,
but one which offers great prospects of hope.
The Director General deserves our warm
commendation for working relentlessly to ensure
an overwhelming response to the call for a
commitment at this, the highest levels, in
destroying a scourge which mocks our humanity.
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Our purpose must be to commit ourselves to global
action in reducing the insecurity of millions of
mankind suffering from chronic food shortages and
malnutrition.
Peace and prosperity will continue to elude us in
the next century unless we commit ourselves to a
meaningful programme of action.
These deliberations and the decisions we take, are
indeed crucial to the survival of all mankind.
All our previous Summits have highlighted the
critical interlinkages of food sufficiency and
adequate nutrition with the global environment,
population growth, the advancement of women
and human development.
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,..,....._,
We have previously recognized the essential role of
forests, soil and water conservation as
indispensable elements necessary to support viable
and sustainable agricultural production.
We have repeatedly highlighted the necessity for
measures to strengthen good, nutrition and
agricultural policies and programmes, with special
attention to the creation and strengthening of food
security at all levels.
On every occasion, we have solemnly pledged to
banish forever from the face of this earth, the
unholy trilogy of hunger, disease and ignorance.
Food must do more than prevent starvation. It
must make for healthy human beings.
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It must provide adequate nutrition to facilitate as
much as possible, the process of learning, from the
earliest days of childhood. Without it, we can
never develop a citizenry capable of productive
endeavour.
Food security must, therefore, be the mainspring of
our final assault against these three evil monsters
which have so long afflicted mankind and thereby
rendered illusory any prospect of enduring peace.
Mr. President.
Man's conquest of space is about to enter a fourth
decade.
Technology is unfolding at unprecedented pace and
in every field.
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The end of the Cold War, as we have often been
reminded, allows us to turn the arsenals of war
into plough shares.
What possible explanation can we then offer as to
why on any given day, 800 million people suffer
from chronic hunger and malnutrition?
It is unacceptable ethically, morally, economically
and politically. We have the collective capacity to
change, it so long as there is the collective will.
Genuine food security will only exist when each
individual and household has the physical and
economic resources to meet dietary needs for a
productive and healthy life. The primordial instinct
of survival cannot be denied nor excused at the
altar of the market.
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It is untrue to blame food security simply as one of
the policy failures at the national level. True, there
is enough blame to share by all.
Yes, there is much more to be done by
governments working in concert with farmers, with
researchers, with agronomists, geneticists, biotechnologists,
conservationists, processors and
consumers.
But, look around the world! We see the
consequences, not only of natural disasters and
their disruptive effects on food production, but
tragically in the cost of lives.
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We see that political and civil strife born of
idealogical and ethnic intolerance forces large
numbers of people, men, women and children, to
go in search of security, not only for refuge, but to
find food for sustenance. The human race is
fighting for survival.
I expect that we will adopt a Declaration which
solemnly commits us to undertake concerted
national action, which enjoins us in a spirit of
mutual confidence, trust and international
solidarity to supplement and reinforce our national
and regional efforts.
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· Our commitments will be but highly charged
rhetoric if not translated into meaningful and
achievable actions. The Plan of Action, therefore,
lays the foundations for each of us building on our
national actions to arrive at the common objective
of global food security.
Such a Plan of Action cannot be limited to
governments only. Its very success is predicated
on collective action by all the social partners in
civil society.
Without their active participation in harnessing the
talents and resources at the community levels,
much of what we plan to do will never come to
friutition.
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The intensive preparatory work at the regional and
national levels, with inputs from other international
organizations and from non-governmental
organizations, has given us a comprehensive set of
Objectives and Actions.
These are to be found in the synthesis of the Seven
Commitments and I shall reflect on some areas of
special concern at the global, regional and national
levels.
First, we must respond immediately and
constructively to the cries for help of the refugees
in certain parts of Africa and Asia. Adequate food
supplies to meet these emergency needs should be
made available as one of our first priorities.
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Helping those who are unable to help themselves is
an ethical and moral imperative.
Secondly, we should focus our attention on those
commitments which compel us to identify the
appropriate policies at eradicating poverty and
inequality; at improving physical and economic
accss to nutritionally adequate and safe food.
Thirdly, sustainable agriculture, fisheries, forestry
and rural development policies and practices lead to
sustainable food production.
Governments, then in collaboration with the
international and scientific communities, have the
obligation to promote research, development and ·
the use of appropriate technologies.
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Mr. President.
Small island developing countries which face the
threat of land loss and erosion, due to climate
change and rising sea-level, have their own
particular requirements for sustainable
development.
We have a special interest in safeguarding our
genetic resources and the rich bio-diversity
endowed by nature. These are areas in which
international cooperation can assist in safeguarding
the range of agricultural resources to meet our
needs.
Jamaica urges the early ratification and
implementation of the Agreement for the
Implementation of Instruments of the United
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Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea relating
to the Conservation and Management of Straddling
Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks.
This will help in developing a responsible and
sustainable utilisation and conservation of fishery
resources.
National capacity-building efforts, principally in net
food importing developing countries, should be
supported. The commitments we have entered into
through the World 1rade Organization should be
translated from good intentions to bankable
proposals:
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I Let me give some illustrations of the dimensions of
the problem. At the conclusion of the Uruguay
Round of Multilateral 1rade Negotiations, our
governments undertook to mitigate the possible
negative effects of trade liberalization in the
agricultural sector mainly of developed countries on
least developed and net food importing developing
countries. Over the past year and a half, world
cereal stocks have fallen to the lowest levels in 20
years and prices have increased two to three times
over their normal levels.
This naturally has adverse effects on the imports of
developing countries whose populations depend on
cereal imports as staples in their diets.
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The PAO has estimated that the import bill of a
group of these developing countries will rise by ten
($10) billion by the year 2000 due to price
increases, of which approximately 14% of the
increase could be attributed to the WTO provisions.
The IMF, on the other hand, argues that the
Uruguay Round will have negligible impact on
their net food import bills. The IMF takes a
sanguine approach to these effects.
Yet, some food exporters, in recognition of the
adverse effects, have undertaken some financial
support-to reduce the food import bills of a limited _
number of countries. We believe that commitments
entered into should be observed and at the first
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Ministerial Conference of the WTO, in less than a
month away, our trading partners will be called on
to honour their commitments.
Mr. President.
Our Plan of Action recognises that world food
insecurity is of concern to all members of the
international community. In recognition of this, we
must now fashion the appropriate follow-up
mechanisms which will combine national, regional
and international action, with functional
cooperation between governments, other social
partners and civil society.
It is doubtful that the traditional inter-agency
coordination of the United Nations System, pursued
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in a bureaucratic fashion will imbue the necessary
energy, sense of urgency and requisite resources to
rise to the challenge. Business as usual will not be
sufficient. This Summit must, therefore, find some
innovative ways to galvanize the agreed actions.
Where necessary we must reform the workings of
the International System "root and branch".
Those countries which, by virtue of the resources
at their disposal and their special and privileged
position in the United Nations, such as the Security
Council and in the multilateral financial
institutions, have analogous responsibilities. It
would be an abdication of responsibility and a
resounding failure of will, just to identify the
measures and appropriate action without the
affluent and powerful undertaking to do more.
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If food insecurity threatens to worsen in the
coming years as population growth and changing
consumption patterns increase demand, if there is
. an unequal distribution of food between the rich
and the poor, both at the national and at the
international level, declarations of respect for
human rights, human dignity, for core labour
standards, peace and security, will be but hollow
and meaningless. We do not gather here to
indulge in empty rituals.
Jamaica has long regarded agriculture as a pivotal
area for growth and development.
We will stretch our resources to the limit in order to
enhance efficiencies and boost present levels of
production.
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To achieve genuine good security for the
Caribbean, we will seek with our CARICOM
partners to satisfy the dietary needs of our own
people and to provide for a burgeoning tourist
industry as well. This requires that we use to best
advantage the total land resources of the region
and that we advance our research capabilities. To
those ends, we will welcome external assistance.
We support the Managua Declaration which
recognizes that the efforts to provide food security
are inter-related and directly linked to the capacity
of our people to obtain economic and physical
access to food, coupled with the capacity of our
nations to produce and obtain adequ~ food
supplies.
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Jamaica, therefore, expects that new and additional
resources will be allocated for research and
development in food production in developing
countries.
We call upon the international community to
support the transfer of appropriate technology to
the countries of the developing world, to bring
about rapid reversal of the impact of hunger and
poverty, on the approximately one billion
und~rnourished people who now inhabit the world.
The problem of food security and the elimination of ·
poverty are intrinsically linked. To break that
vicious circle is the single most daunting dilemma
currently facing the international community.
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Ours is the responsibility and the opportunity to
make the breakthrough for generations that will
follow.
Let us seize the moment by bold and far-reaching
decisions followed by action, with that sense of
urgency, which the situation demands. We must
win the struggle for survival and allow humanity
to thrive.
The entire world looks to us. We dare not fail
them!!
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NOTES
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Published by the Government of Jamaica
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